DSP - Laboratory 1

Daniele Orsuti
[email protected]
October 27, 2021

Abstract
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First laboratory experience for the course Digital Signal Processing (DSP) a.y. 21/22. Topics:
filters, their applications, and fundamentals of image processing.

1 Universal Product Code (UPC) decoding - Edge detection

0 = 3 − 2 − 1 − 1; 5=1−2−3−1
1 = 2 − 2 − 2 − 1; 6=1−1−1−4
2 = 2 − 1 − 2 − 2; 7=1−3−1−2
3 = 1 − 4 − 1 − 1; 8=1−2−1−3
4 = 1 − 1 − 3 − 2; 9=3−1−1−2

Figure 1: UPC code.

For example, the code for the number “5” is 1-2-3-1, meaning it could be a one-unit wide white
space, followed by a 2-wide black bar, followed by a 3-wide white space, and finally a 1-wide black bar
(or inverted: 1-wide black, 2-wide white, 3-wide black, and 1-wide white). The UPC (Universal Product
Code) consists of twelve digits delimited on each end by 1-1-1 (blackwhite-black), and separated in the
middle (between the sixth and seventh digit) by white-black-white-blackwhite (1-1-1-1-1). Thus the
entire UPC must have 30 black bars and 29 white bars for a total of 59. Furthermore, note that the
encoding for each digit always adds up to seven so the total width of the bar code is always the same.
1 All information and material presented here is intended to be used for educational or informational purposes only.

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In terms of the unit width where the thinnest bars have width one, it should be easy to determine that
the total width of the UPC bar code is 95 units 2 .
Follow the steps below to develop the processing needed to decode a typical bar code from a scanned
image. The following description refers to figure (2).

Figure 2: Using an FIR system plus a threshold operator to detect and locate edges, i.e., transitions.
m0 : index of the selected row.

A decoder for the final step is provided as a Matlab p-code file (called decodeUPC.p). The data files
and the decoder for the lab are available in the folder.

• Read the image upca5.gif into Matlab with the imread function. Extract one row (in the
middle) to define a 1-D signal x[n].
• FIR Filter on Row
Filter the signal x[n] with a first-difference FIR filter (output: y[n] = x[n] − x[n − 1] (impulse
response written as [1, −1] in Matlab)); call the output y[n]. Use conv with option ’valid’ to
perform the filtering operation and remove the part of the convolution computed on the zero-
padded edges. Make a stem plot of the input and output signals, in the same figure window.
Note: we will mark only one side of the transition as true when you threshold the output of the
first-difference filter. Is it located before or after the transition?

• Create a sparse detected signal d[n] by comparing the magnitude |y[n]| to a threshold. Then
convert the sparse signal d[n] into a location signal l[n] by using the find function to extract
locations. Make a stem plot of the location signal, l[n].

Threshold operator: (
Edge False, if |y[n]| < τ
d(n) =
Edge True, if |y[n]| ≥ τ
Determine an appropriate value of the threshold τ to get the edges. In Matlab use the abs
function along with a logical operator (such as > or <) to define this thresholding system that
gives a “TRUE” binary output for the edges, with y[n] as the input to this thresholding system.

Convert to locations: Use Matlab’s find function to produce a shorter signal that contains
the edge locations; Note: The length of the location signal must be greater than or equal to 60,
if the rest of the processing is going to succeed.

• Apply a first-difference filter to the location signal; call the output ∆[n]. These differences should
be the widths of the bars. Make a stem plot of ∆[n], and put this plot and the previous one of
l[n] in the same figure window by using subplot. Observe how the plot of ∆[n] conveys the idea
that there are (approximately) four different widths in the bar code.
• In order to successfully decode the UPC code, it is necessary to estimate the the basic width
(wb ), in pixels, of the thinnest bar and use that to normalize ∆[n]. From the introduction it is
known that the total width of a valid 12-digit bar code is equal to 95wb = W , where W is the
total width in number of pixels of the code. Therefore the above equation can be inverted to find
wb . Find the value of W by using ∆[n] (hint: look at how ∆[n] has been defined) or l[n] and
then compute wb . Check if the value of wb is correct by looking directly at the width (in pixel)
of the thinnest bar from the imported image.
2 Solution: 12 digits × 7 thin bars per digits + 3 thin bars at the beginning + 3 thin bars at the end + 5 thin bars

in the middle. For more information visit: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/upc3.htm.

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 • Using your estimate of wb from the previous part, convert the values of ∆n into relative sizes
by dividing by wb and rounding. The result should be integers that are equal to 1, 2, 3 or 4,
assuming you are analyzing a valid bar code.
• Now we are ready to perform the decoding to digits. A p-code function decodeUPC is provided
for that purpose. It takes one input vector that has to be a length-59 vector of integers, i.e.,
the output of the previous part. The function decodeUPC has one output which should be a
vector of twelve single-digit numbers, if the decoder does not detect an error. When there is an
error the output may be partially correct, but the incorrect decodes will be indicated with a -1.
Note: The signal entering the decoder should have 3 ones on its head and 3 ones on its tail, if
the previous steps have been done correctly.

• The 12 digits which are expected are give in the loaded image. Test all the images that are
available. Remember to convert the image from RGB to black and white if necessary, and to
check if the value of τ needs to be updated.

2 Edge detection in images using local variance [2]

Local statistics can determine the gradient of the image. The local variance can be used to generate
an edge map. In this section we first compute the local variance of an image, then we find the edges
by exploiting the local variance. Local variance means that instead of finding variance for the whole
matrix which represent the image, variance is computed based on a small sliding window. Figure 3
shows the steps which allow to compute the local variance and that we are going to implement in
Matlab. Before following the steps in figure 3, load the image eleph2 .jpg, convert it to gray scale
(rgb2gray(·)), then to double (double(·)), and finally plot the figure using the following line
figure,imagesc(I);colormap(gray);title(’Original Image B&W’);

Once the steps in figure 3 have been completed, proceed with edge detection:
• Find the mean of the local variance matrix and save the results to use it as a threshold for edge
detection (The threshold value can also be set by the user. For instance, set the threshold value
to 400.)

• Apply thresholding to the local variance matrix with the threshold found on previous step.
• Show the results using imagesc and colormap as above.
What does it remind you the procedure you have implemented to compute the local variance? Can
you guess an alternative implementation by using default Matlab functions?

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Figure 3: Steps to follow.

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3 Auto-Correlation and simple Echo Cancellation [3]
Now you will use the correlation of two sequences to solve a simple echo cancellation problem. The
correlation of real sequences y[n] and z[n] is another sequence, say Ryz [n], that is defined by
Ryz (n) = y[n] ∗ z[−n]
That is, it is computed by evaluating the convolution of y[n] with the time-reversed version of z[n].
The correlation serves as a useful measure of similarity between two sequences (and is actually used
in pattern recognition applications).
When both sequences y[n] and z[n] are identical, we refer to the resulting correlation sequence as the
auto-correlation sequence. Therefore, the auto-correlation sequence of y[n] is simply the convolution
of y[n] with y[−n], and is denoted by
Ry [n] = y[n] ∗ y[−n]
Now consider a signal y[n] that is obtained as the sum of a sequence x[n] and its delayed and scaled
version, ax[n − N ],
y[n] = x[n] + a · x[n − N ]
where a is the amplitude of an echo x[n − N ] and N is the delay in samples. Given measurements
of y[n], we are interested in estimating the delay N of the echo. In the sequel we assume that the
original sequence x[n] starts at time n = 0. That is, x[n] is zero for n < 0.
Due to the form of y[n], its autocorrelation function can be shown to have peak values at the time
instants n = 0, n = N , and n = −N (you will verify this during the exercise).
Therefore, from a plot of the auto-correlation function we can determine the delay N . We assume
a is known (methods for estimating a are beyond the scope of this exercise). Now given a and N , their
values can be used to remove the echo and recover the original signal. This can be achieved in several
ways, here a one method is presented.

3.1 Method
First recall that we are assuming that the original sequence x[n] starts at time n=0. That is, x[n] is
zero for n < 0. This shows that the first N samples of x[n] and y[n] coincide,
x(n) = y(n) for n < N.
We still need to recover the values of x[n] for time instants larger than or equal to N. For this purpose,
we simply note that
y[N ] = x[N ] + a · x[0] ,
so that x[N ] can be recovered from
x[N ] = y[N ] − a · x[0] .
Likewise, for values of n larger than N we employ successively the following relation,
x[n] = y[n] − a · x[n − N ] .

3.2 Tasks
• Load the audio signal y echo .mat which is sampled at Fs = 44100 Hz. Play the audio with the
command sound (please, remember to specify Fs ).
• Compute the autocorrelation of the audio signal by using the Matlab function xcorr, and plot
the results obtained.
• From the plot obtained in the previous point, find the value N defined above (Sec. (3)).
• Apply the technique presented in methods (Sec. 3.1) to cancel the echo from the audio signal
(for this task consider a = 0.75). Hint: follow Sec. 3.1 step by step.
• Plot, using subplot, the original and the filtered signal, then play them and check the result.
x[n] = y[n] − a · x[n − N ] .
Is it an FIR filter?

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References
[1] J. H. McClellan, R. W. Schafer, and M. A. Yoder. DSP First (2nd Edition). Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
USA, 2007.
[2] not defined. imageprocessinglab. Report, not defined, 2021.
[3] A. H. Sayed. Dsp lab. Report, UCLA Electrical Engineering Department, 2000.